In the first instance, it could translate into pressures on other countries to also repatriate part of their gold holdings. After all, if you can safely store your gold at home — a big if for some countries — no government would wish to be seen as one of the last to outsource all of this activity to foreign central banks.

Ecuador’s government wants the nation’s banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support national growth, the head of the country’s tax agency said.

Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known as the SRI, said today that Ecuador’s lenders could repatriate about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients. Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to the South American nation’s poor.

(Forbes notes that Iran and Libya have recently repatriated their gold as well).

The Telegraph’s lead economics writer – Ambrose Evans Pritchard – argues that the German repatriation demand shows that we’re switching to a de facto gold standard:

Central banks around the world bought more bullion last year in terms of tonnage than at any time in almost half a century.

They added a net 536 tonnes in 2012 as they diversified fresh reserves away from the four fiat suspects: dollar, euro, sterling, and yen.

The Washington Accord, where Britain, Spain, Holland, South Africa, Switzerland, and others sold a chunk of their gold each year, already seems another era – the Gordon Brown era, you might call it.

That was the illusionary period when investors thought the euro would take its place as the twin pillar of a new G2 condominium alongside the dollar. That hope has faded. Central bank holdings of euro bonds have fallen back to 26pc, where they were almost a decade ago.

Neither the euro nor the dollar can inspire full confidence, although for different reasons. EMU is a dysfunctional construct, covering two incompatible economies, prone to lurching from crisis to crisis, without a unified treasury to back it up. The dollar stands on a pyramid of debt. We all know that this debt will be inflated away over time – for better or worse. The only real disagreement is over the speed.

***

My guess is that any new Gold Standard will be sui generis, and better for it. Let gold will take its place as a third reserve currency, one that cannot be devalued, and one that holds the others to account, but not so dominant that it hitches our collective destinies to the inflationary ups (yes, gold was highly inflationary after the Conquista) and the deflationary downs of global mine supply.

***

A third reserve currency is just what America needs. As Prof Micheal Pettis from Beijing University has argued, holding the world’s reserve currency is an “exorbitant burden” that the US could do without.

The Triffin Dilemma – advanced by the Belgian economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s – suggests that the holder of the paramount currency faces an inherent contradiction. It must run a structural trade deficit over time to keep the system afloat, but this will undermine its own economy. The system self-destructs.

A partial Gold Standard – created by the global market, and beholden to nobody – is the best of all worlds. It offers a store of value (though no yield). It acts a balancing force. It is not dominant enough to smother the system.

Let us have three world currencies, a tripod with a golden leg. It might even be stable.

How Much Gold Is There?

It’s not confidence-inspiring that CNBC’s senior editor John Carney argues that it doesn’t matter whether or not the U.S. has the physical gold it claims to hold.

If the Western central banks are indeed leasing out their physical reserves, they would not actually have to disclose the specific amounts of gold that leave their respective vaults. According to a document on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical treatment of the Eurosystem’s International Reserves, current reporting guidelines do not require central banks to differentiate between gold owned outright versus gold lent out or swapped with another party. The document states that, “reversible transactions in gold do not have any effect on the level of monetary gold regardless of the type of transaction (i.e. gold swaps, repos, deposits or loans), in line with the recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines.”6 (Emphasis theirs). Under current reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central banks refer to their gold reserves.

When the Fed now writes $85 billion of checks to buy Treasuries and mortgages every month, they really have nothing in the “bank” to back them. Supposedly they own a few billion dollars of “gold certificates” that represent a fairy-tale claim on Ft. Knox’s secret stash, but there’s essentially nothing there but trust.. When a primary dealer such as J.P. Morgan or Bank of America sells its Treasuries to the Fed, it gets a “credit” in its account with the Fed, known as “reserves.” It can spend those reserves for something else, but then another bank gets a credit for its reserves and so on and so on. The Fed has told its member banks “Trust me, we will always honor your reserves,” and so the banks do, and corporations and ordinary citizens trust the banks, and “the beat goes on,” as Sonny and Cher sang. $54 trillion of credit in the U.S. financial system based upon trusting a central bank with nothing in the vault to back it up. Amazing!

And given that gold-plated tungsten has turned up all over the world, and that a top German gold expert found fake gold bars imprinted with official U.S. markings, Germans may have lost confidence in the trustworthiness of the Fed. See this, this, this and this.

Currency War?

Officials at the Bundesbank … acknowledged the move is “preemptive” in case a “currency crisis” hits the European Monetary Union.

***

“No, we have no intention to sell gold,” a Bundesbank spokesman said on the phone Wednesday, “[the relocation] is in case of a currency crisis.”

Reggie Middleton thinks that Germany’s demand for its gold is part of a currency war.

Jim Rickards has previously said that the Fed had plans to grab Germany gold:

Jim Rickards has outlined possible plans by the Federal Reserve to commandeer Germany’s and all foreign depositors of sovereign gold at the New York Federal Reserve in the event of a dollar and monetary crisis leading to intensified “currency wars” and the ‘nuclear option’ of a drastic upward revision of the price of gold and a return to a quasi gold standard is contemplated by embattled central banks to prevent debt deflation.

Back in the mid-1920s, the head of the German Central Bank, Herr Hjalmar Schacht, went to New York to see Germany’s gold. However the NY Fed officials were unable to find the palette of Germany’s gold bullion. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Benjamin Strong was mortified, but to put him at ease Herr Schacht turned to him and said ‘Never mind, I believe you when you when you say the gold is there. Even if it weren’t you are good for its replacement.’ (H/T The Real Asset Company)

But that was then and this is now. In the eyes of the Germans – and who can blame them? – America has lost its mojo to such a degree that it can no longer be trusted honour its debts, even in the unlikely event that it were financially capable of doing so. Which is why, following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (who may be an idiot but is definitely no fool), Germany is repatriatriating its gold from the US federal reserve. It will now be stored in Frankfurt.

***

[Things] may look calm on the surface, but this latest move by the Bundesbank gives us a pretty good indication that beneath the surface that serene-seeming swan is paddling for dear life.

Every few months there is a discussion regarding what China are planning on doing with the gold they both mine and import every year, with many believing they are hoarding the metal as an insurance against the billions of US Treasury bonds, notes and bills they hold. Many believe they will issue some kind of gold-backed currency in the short-term and dump its one trillion dollars’ worth of US Treasury securities. Whilst, at the moment the US seem to take their monopoly currency for granted, should the Chinese or anyone else behave in such a manner, the US will need to respond – most likely with gold, which on its own it does not have enough of.

In other words, Rickards and Skoyles appear to argue that Germany may be repatriating gold in the first round of musical chairs in which China is preparing to roll out a gold-backed Yuan. Under this theory, the rest of the world’s currencies will sink unless their nations’ can scramble to get their hands on enough gold to lend credibility to their paper.

Mali is one of the world’s largest gold producers. Together with neighboring Ghana they account for 7-8% of world gold output. That makes them a rich prize for nations desperate for real physical gold. So, even as Germany started demanding their gold back from the Bank of France and the New York Federal Reserve, France (aided by the US) decided to invade Mali to fight “Islamists” working for “Al Qaeda.” Of course, “Islamists” has become the catch-all label for people that need to be killed to get them out of the way of the path to riches, and the people being bombed by France (aided by the US) are not “Al Qaeda” but Tawariqs, who have been fighting for their independence for 150 years, long before the CIA created “Al Qaeda”. Left to themselves, the Tawariqs could sell gold to whoever they want for whatever they want, and right now China can outbid the US and France.

Can someone please explain to me why anyone or any organization would want to lease (rent) gold? It makes absolutely no sense at all to me. How can you claim it as collateral for a loan or anything else? If you rent every room in the waldorf astoria for a day, a week, a month, or a year you still don’t own it even if you spend more money than what it would take to purchase it. When the lease period is over the ownership does not change any hands. Can anyone make any sense out of this for me please?

Giz

You are thinking with conventional wisdom. This is a banksters accounting trick that allows the same gold to be counted multiple times by multiple parties. It’s a con job!!!

William Bannister

Giz is right and the con is actually amazing hold gold and lease it out then if someone actually takes delivery there is a fat fee to deliver. Imagine leasing out your picture on the wall since its an antique you use it to borrow money from your friend.. now u repeat process with 10 friends explaining if you dont pay em back they can have painting but to save them the work you will hold it and keep it safe since moving it might be a pain cause its so big besides friends trust each other right? So now imagine banks doing this to each other. A typical ponzi, and countries engage in it too. US lends to jp morgan then jp lends to usb then usb lends to duetche bank thats lends to imf who lends to greece who spends the gold and cant pay back and now everyone in the chain gets the shaft. just a fun example i made up. Its crazy then throw a few criminal workers in the mix that bring in a couple granite bars and take the real ones and disappear with them. Then every one is embarrassed they got ripped off so everyone agrees to not say anything just tell everyone the gold is still there. Pretty soon all the gold bars are starting to look like granite. Lmfao. I mean come on dont we already know we are getting ripped off by our government? Maybe thats why they filmed Cowboys and Aliens so they can blame the missing gold on Aliens that beamed it aboard a rogue space ship that stole all the Fed reserve gold. The humor is just that humor but the ponzi is real and your best bet is buy some gold and silver then you can sleep at night knowing if they wreck the dollar who cares it just means you will be rich since you prepared for it. There is a reason why Banks Wall street and company try like crazy to talk bad about gold because they want you to think its worthless until they get most of it then once it explodes in price then they will brag about its the best thing to have to back your wealth with. Also if you see gold is valuable it will show how worthless there paper assets really are.
I see writing on the wall the currency war has begun. Dont be the last man standing without some gold or silver in your basement.

puremonopoly.com

The other comments are really off subject. Gold leasing is just like margin accounting. If I were in need of a greater supply of liquidity and had the credit worthiness to accomplish such a task like Hedge Funds usually have since they are usually in the most less risky market movers, I would turn to gold leases. These leases, which are nothing more than margin loan liquidity, enable me to add more money into the market and diversify my portfolio in areas with strong long-term investment potential where the reward is greatly outweighed by the low risk involved. Say that I have 2 apples (stocks) and I can lease an orange (gold) for free or almost free because my trust rating on repayment is so high. After leasing that orange, I then go to market with it and sell it for cash. I use that cash to buy another apple or maybe some pears because there is a high probability that the other fruits will be worth more compared to the orange in the long-term. Once the algorithms are set and I have realized that my potential for profit taking with the other fruits has came to fruition, I then sell those other fruits at market and buy back the orange (gold position) that I previously owned to pay back my lease (margin loan). By doing this I have created much more liquidity in the market by allowing other positions to be filled and profit taking was realized. Since I’m a smart investor, I use algorithms to work on risk management and if a drop in the other fruits market price did occur to a certain point, my position would have signaled a sell and I would have went to market and sold the fruit that wasn’t performing so well, thereby losing money. However, I would have still been able to pay back my orange lease because I believe in less risky investments and extreme diversification (if I were a Hedge Fund) and don’t ride the fruits (stocks/commodities/investments) to the bottom when it’s time to get out of the market. Gold leasing is an important part of macroeconomics and it can be very beneficial if the investor is responsible with their investments and analyses all the positions so as to minimize the fruits from rotting (going in the red).

martae

Fred,
the gold is leased, and then sold into the commodity markets, to give the illusion of a greater supply than truly exists(since the central banks still claim to have their gold), thus forcing the paper price down. When someone stands for delivery, at the COMEX, or the LBMA, metal must be delivered, or the default will cause the price to soar. This, above all else, would show the decrease of value of all the fiat currencies, and is the last thing that the central banks want. If the borrower cannot buy the gold back at some point, to return to the central bank, the central bank just extends the lease. If they do not, the borrower will declare bankruptcy, and the central banks will have to admit the loss of the gold, and this is the penultimate thing they want.

Fred

Martae
Thanks that makes perfect sense to me now the central banks are backing the gamblers sitting at the commodities tables. And some how this is also perfectly “legal” rent some gold and go play craps with it…… And it also serves to make the whole game seem to be much bigger than it really is since they have all the “volume” that should be serving to back currencies it keeps the specie rate higher and the physical commodity rate lower.

Rich H

What happens when Germany finds out it just gold plated lead bars?

Rich H

Whoops, excuse me.
That’s what I get for posting snark.

amerikagulag

They won’t be getting lead, they’ll be getting carbide, The latest in the gold scam straight from China.

Hey Germany! Better get out your drills and magnets. The US’ll try to slip you some junk, you can be sure.

Rich H

What happens when Germany finds out it’s just gold plated lead bars?

Umlandt Gerhard

It´s German Gold, Cowboy! Dig it!

fionamacknz

Wasn’t it clever of the teabots to put us in a position where our specie is, for the first time, no longer trusted? That’s going to cost this country, in the end, trillions of dollars–which the people deliberately causing the problem will be trying desperately to foist off on the administration. And, of course, THEIR constituents will believe it, because they’ll believe anything their party says.

Richinky

I truly believe that this is more for show and if we send them gold plated tungsten nobody will say a thing as all the nations realize that if it got out that the gold is gone it could be a world wide catastrophe. All nations rely on people having faith in their currency.

charlestonvoice

The US Fed Has Stolen the German Bundesbank’s Central Bank Gold Reserves

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Charles Savoie

The “Pilgrims Society” was set up to “seize” and “absorb” wealth. No wonder Germany’s gold is gone!